The Book of Sand Jorge Luis Borges SETTING 4TH Floor
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The Book of Sand Jorge Luis Borges SETTING 4TH Floor Apartment Belgrano Street Buenos Aires CHARACTERS Narrator: retired/ used to work at the Argentine National ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
Title: The Book of Sand Jorge Luis Borges SETTING 4TH Floor
1 The Book of Sand
Jorge Luis Borges
2 SETTING
4TH Floor Apartment
Belgrano Street
Buenos Aires
3 CHARACTERS
Narrator retired/ used to work at the Argentine National Library/ seems to be a collector of books/ becomes obsessed with the Book of Sand/
Bible Salesman from the Orkneys/ tall/ nondescript features/ dressed in gray/ gray suitcase in hand/ foreigner/ appeared old with thin blond hair/ really wasnt old
4 PLOT
Exposition
Introductory paragraph describing infinity
Point of Conflict
The stranger appears at the narrators door.
5
Complications
Salesman offers the Book of Sand for sale/ narrator examines the book and buys it/ narrator becomes obsessed with the book/ cant sleep and isolates himself
Climax
Narrator realizes that the book is monstrous and is consuming his life. The best place to hide a leaf is in a forest.
6
Falling Action
The narrator goes to the basement of the Argentine National Library, where books and maps and periodicals are kept
Denouement (resolution)
Narrator hides the book on one of the dusty shelves
7 CONFLICT
External (elemental)- deciding to buy the book/ negotiating the deal to get the Book of Sand
Internal- the narrators struggle with his obsession with the book versus getting rid of the book
8 POINT OF VIEW
1st person Narrator
The main character is the narrator of the story.
9 THEME
The theme is paradoxical - a contradiction that holds a truth.
There is no beginning or ending. The book is infinite contains everything in the universe, but like the world and life, it has a different appearance every time you look at it.
10 OTHER ELEMENTS
Surrealism bizarre, unreal / even though the narrator says the story is true, it isnt believable
Foreshadowing The first paragraphs discussion of infinite suggests the infinite nature of the Book of Sand
Metaphor The Book of Sand is a metaphor for time and space